Businesses and other organizations are continuously working to improve their productivity and competitiveness. As part of these efforts, businesses have been increasing the portion of their revenues that they spend on Information Services (IS) and Information Technology (IT), collectively referred to herein as “IT”. Many businesses now spend between 4% and 8% of their revenue on IT. However, many businesses are not satisfied with the return on investment (ROI) in IT. Ample evidence exists of instances of IT spending gone awry, with potentially crippling effects on the business organization.
The growing importance of IT to a business's competitive advantage has led some businesses to hire a Chief Information Officer (CIO) or the like to manage the organization's IT needs. Like others in the organization, CIOs are being asked to manage more with less. However, CIOs do not have proper or adequate tools to enable them to successfully manage IT. While other entities within an organization may rely on enterprise management software solutions to assist in managing projects, human resources, etc., such enterprise management solutions are not particularly well adapted to the specific needs and problems associated with management of IT.